Monday, October 22, 2012

Just when you thought you had seen the sleekest house (like the one
featured in Eugene's post about the Santa Barbara pavilion), here comes
an amazing one perched on top of Hollywood Hills. It's truly a design to kill for...

If Marty McFly traveled back from the future and brought back tons of dough, I'm pretty sure he would purchase this triplex penthouse apartment in New York. Overlooking the the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbor, the "Clocktower" apartment is on the market for a cool $25 million, more than double the highest price known to have been paid for a home in Brooklyn.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Travel guides mostly do not mention these under ground wonders,
creepy tunnels and massive underground systems. Some of these tunnels
are only recently opened to public. Some are still impossible to enter
and very hard to explore. But this is where the “spirit of adventure”
comes in, as multitudes of amateur photographers descend into the
unknown to bring back evidence of things unseen.

1. Abandoned Salte Mine in Romania

Turda Salt mine is an old closed salt mine in Cluj Country Romania.
The closed mine has long tunnels, and a deep natural cave. The
excavations dug a huge artificial cave, in which you could fit three
10-story blocks. Marius says: “you can play football inside of them; and
you enter there by bus”.

These days you can buy jewelry in all shapes and colors, but what about wearing Barbie’s body parts as earrings, necklace, etc.? Designer Margaux Lange has made a collection ofaccessories
that contains pieces of the plastic princess, everything from breasts
to hands. The designer says

Monday, October 15, 2012

The well was like that one weak spot on the Death Star; it was an
ultimate source of vulnerability. Sure there were dozens of ways to
pour sand and molten substances on oncoming aggressors, and the
structural soundness of the castle ensured impenetrability, but if the
well wasn’t properly-secured, or if it ran dry, the rest was very
useless. Invaders could very well poison the water supply, if left
unattended, and virtually guarantee defeat.

The castle was a very boring place. Essentially, all anyone did was
stick around making sure nobody touched their stuff. Outdoors,
recreational activities included hunting and a whole bunch of combat
training. Manly things indeed. Indoors however, it was much more
bleak. Chess was one of the few games that did exist in the day, but
the number one way to cure boredom was to eat (which people still do to
this day). There’d be great feasts full of food and drink (lots of
booze), jesters and minstrels. Nowadays, we have T.V. dinners and
six-packs. And you don’t need to be of high social standing to enjoy
those (and you usually aren’t).

When you think of a castle, you usually think of lavish amenities and
grand-scale poshness, but who cares how big the barn is, when its still
slathered in mud and smells like horse manure. Similarly, castles were
often poorly lit (the sun came through tiny slits for windows); they
were damp; and they had poor air circulation (think of all they body
heat circling around the place). After all castles were build primarily
for defense; creature comforts were on the back-burner. Eventually
however, castles came to be outfitted with pretty rugs and artful
stained-glass windows as somebody had the bright idea to make these
things livable, and to have the interior be a reflection of wealth as
well as the exterior.

This is according to the Castellarium Anglicanum which is supposed to be
the ultimate authority on castles in England and Wales. Note the
intentional use of the term “site,” as many of these castles are ruined
to the point of invisibility, while over 800 have some remnants, and
more than 300 are still standing and structurally intact to a large
degree. Also note, there is some debate as to what constitutes a
“castle,” as some structures claim to be castles even as they are
definitively not so.

Castles were always built with a spiraling staircase that turned
clockwise. This was a purposeful design element that served an
incredibly practical purpose; the idea was incoming siegers would ascend
the stairs, but be given a huge disadvantage in the way of their sword
arm, as most people are right-handed. On the other hand, castle
occupants descending the stairs would be given the advantage of a
staircase designed with their sword-arms in mind. Damned they were
though, if they were attacked by an entirely left-handed infantry.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Just looking at all the apparatus and features of a castle gives you a
pretty good idea of its purpose: moats, turrets, ramparts, murder holes,
gun and arrow loops, etc. Every single one of these design elements
was meant to keep enemies out and down. A few that stand out: murder
holes were holes in the ceiling through which scalding liquids would be
poured on the enemy. Gun and arrow loops were slits out of which arrows
could be fired from with little detection. It seemed foolish in any
context to even approach a castle without a written invitation

At about 900 years old, Windsor is still occupied by Queen Elizabeth II
(one of the many facilities she calls home). Originally, it was a
wooden motte-and-bailey-type castle built by William I as the first in a
series of nine castles. Later it was renovated with stones and was
given a few additions by way of some outer walls and a round tower by a
generous Henry II. Sounds similar to the way every elected U.S.
President has added a new feature to the White House (most recently with
President Obama’s basketball court). Whatever you can do to call it
home…

When the Normans (who came from Normandy, France) came to England almost
a thousand years ago, they built wooden motte-and-bailey-styled
castles, which were essentially castles built on a mount, whereby
low-level residents and enemies at naturally lower altitudes had to hike
up sharp inclines to reach the castle itself. While this was a clever
way of putting the earth to good use, the walls which enveloped the
castle, as well as the castle itself, were made of wood, which could
easily be burnt down.

This is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable features of the castle, as
if the castle weren’t uncomfortable enough; there were no toilets, but
rather little constructions called “garderobes,” a hole through which
users would aim their waste products, which would ultimate go through
shoots which wound up in the surrounding moats. Adding to the
wretchedness, these “bathrooms” were often cold and breezy, hardly
conducive to progress. Another gross detail: the “garderobe” was called
such as residents would keep their clothing inside, as the odor would
repel insects (and any human with a sense of smell, most likely).

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Here is a collection of some incredible photos of Lexus LFA ful size sculpture made by Japanese architect
Sou Fujimoto. This sculpture is constructed from transparent acrylic
boards that have been sanded and polished. The most impressive thing
about sculpture is that its looks so cool as

Spain is a fabulous country and fantastic tourist destination. You
will no doubt find the ideal destination to meet your needs when you go
to Spain. Traveling through Spain you see numerous monuments. As you continue traveling you’ll find museums, as well as stunning architecture. Here is collection of some incredible sculpture art around the Spain.Sculpture In Sitges City